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That is the summary of most difficulties you face in life. Such is the case with Kaylee's ailment. She and Diogenes have a conversation while he's in the midst of a darkly odd activity.

Date

September 14, 2009

Kaylee's Apartment / A Small Abandoned Building on Staten Island

A dull clackity clack clack is vaguely heard as Tom's thumb goes nimbly from one button to the next on his cell phone; the cheaper one of the two, that is. Not at all a fan of the annoying beep boop boop, he turns off nearly all reactive electronic moans and whines that the mobile phone emits. Such was the case here, as well. However, even if those sounds were on, they would most likely be drowned out by other wails. Real ones. Pitiful wails, unspoken pleas of mercy.

They soon turn to choking of the more silent variety, since certain people absolutely have no respect for those who are about to have a conversation on the phone and ignore their wishes. The young man with the dark apparel walks in a mathematically gorgeous circle, the sizeable phone pressed against his cheek, the ring tone… well, ringing… in a certain interval as he awaits for Kaylee to pick up the phone, hoping that her habits are not equal to that of his mother, who had the tendency to stuff it in the Abyss of her purse and never hear who's calling her.

It's been a very long night. She went into the ER early in the afternoon on Sunday and only got home a few hours ago. Of course, as soon as she got there, she decided to get familiar with her pillow and pass out. So when her cellphone starts playing Katy Perry, it takes a few moments to register. She groans and reaches out for it, "God.. Who the hell…?"

On Diogenes' end there is the sound of the phone being picked up and then the clatter of the phone being dropped. Kaylee's voice can be heard saying a few choice words before the phone is retrieved. After some rustling, "Hello?" She sounds rather tired, as the grumbles. "This better not be a telemarketer.. cause I will come find you and hurt you."

"Hey, Kaylee!" The exclamational greeting, the tone of which carries hidden undertones of sarcasm, starts out with the first word's vowel deliberately prolonged by the speaker.

"You have a very weird name", he remarks out of the blue before carrying on to the relatively more important matter: "Been to the doctor, yet? Are we gonna have a baby?" The hurriedly spoken duo of questions is accompanied by not only sarcasm, but a mocking form of hopefulness. Interestingly, it is succeeded by a specific sound which Kaylee would have a chance of picking up - a dull, relatively distant groan; it is momentary, and it soon devolves into gurgling, which soon fades out into silence.

That, my dear friends, is the sound you make if someone weighing one hundred and thirty pounds purposefully steps on your hand that you cannot move, twisting the heel of his slick business shoes against the bone, and you don't have enough air in your lungs to scream.

"Oh.. Hey Dio…" Kaylee sighs the out, curling up on her side with a pillow. "Same threat applies." Though she sounds far from serious about it. When she catches the groaning and gurgling, she frowns a bit, "Sounds like your having a little fun. Why wasn't I invited?" Her tone a mocking pout… " And no. I'm not pregnant. That was the first thing the damn hospital ruled out before admitting. I feel used and violated… I hate doctors." She gives a soft laugh, "Like you really needed to know that."

Cracking open an eye she peers at the time, "And if I was for some obscure reason wanting to be maternal.. You are not on the top of my list for potential fathers." She sits up, swinging her legs off the bed. "So why did you really call?"

There are certain images that make certain human beings cringe. For some, it's needles. For others, it could be a mundane scene. But there's also a group of people who would cringe if they saw someone hop up in the air slightly only to let gravity bring their harsh footwear come crashing back on another's hand. That's exactly what Diogenes does.

There is, quite obviously, an audible crack, although it does not reach the phone's receiver. Content, the younger man steps off the hand, leaving the larger, still immobile figure lying on the ground, drawing increasingly shorter breaths as time goes on, unable to express experienced pain. "It's…", he pauses distancing himself from his victim that succumbed to Greed and followed the young aspiring sociopath. "I'm too greedy to share my fun", he mutters rather cheerfully, eyeing his 'catch'.

"My company is extremely boring. And I feel less guilty waking you up this early in the morning - or night, whichever you prefer - than if I woke up Isis. So, tell me - in how many days are you dying?" He smirks, content with that morbid joke of his.

What he probably didn't expect was for her to answer that question, "They don't know.. could be a month.. maybe more. Could be years." Kaylee comments sounding completely serious, as she shuffles her way into the kitchenette of her crappy little apartment. She glances at the pill bottles sitting on the small bar that separates the little work space from the rest of the place. She picks up the bottle and gives his a shake. "And they don't know why." Putting it down, she moves to grab the coffeepot, which she starts to fill it at the sink. "But hey…. I feel better now that they have my on anti-nausea meds."

Hope. An ironic phenomenon, considering that when you do not get it, you hope for hope, and the circle is stuck in a never-ending loop. Diogenes found that to be endlessly entertaining, especially when it came to observing individuals who hold onto that line of Hope. The poor homeless victim of his gets a chance to stand. And while he holds onto that precious broken hand of his—

Wait, what? Diogenes furrows his brows, and his nose is promptly wrinkled. Silence envelops both the room Diogenes is in, and the one Kaylee is in, with minor differences - mundane miniature sounds on Kaylee's end, and scoffs and wails on Dio's end. Eventually, this silence would be broken. "They don't— Yeah, of course. Want to assassinate someone? Hey, here's two hundred varieties of Evolved who can kill efficiently. An illness detector or something? Mmm'nah."

"So… What are you gonna do? What's on your mind?"

"On my mind?" Kaylee glances at the time, "On my mind is the fact, I haven't had coffee and I'm talking to you. You tend to take more thought." Kaylee teases him, as she flick the coffee maker on. As for what I'm going to do, is that I have work today. That visit wasn't cheap especially with the MRIs and CAT scans." That's right, Kaylee is not thinking about it. Why think about something you don't know how to stop or fix. "And no… they don't know why I'm dying." She turns and leans on the counter. "Don't worry, I won't ask for your pity, I know your not the type. And I don't want it. If I wanted it, I'd tell Ash or Adam." Something in how she says that, gives the impression that she won't be.

A sound manages to weasel its way into the cell phone's receiver. A sound that is identical to the one from before - a groan and a gurgle.

"That's interesting. Already hopped to acceptance? A certain psychologist is rolling in his grave, right about now." Diogenes bites down on his lower lip, which he then chews on harmlessly in thought. "Listen, I have to address a certain matter right now, and it will take time. I won't give you pity. I'll just say you're pathetic if you're giving up in a world where the impossible is possible."

"Yeah well… I'm sure at some point when I'm writhing in agony as my body kills itself, I'll start freaking out about it." Kaylee comments with a touch of forced brightness. "But, yeah… Don't let me keep you from your fun." The woman is obviously not bothered by what he's doing, or she thinks he's doing. "I'm freakin' starving anyhow. I feel like I haven't eaten in days. And I think I might go grab a big old breakfast somewhere." She eyes the coffee she just put on, "Welcome to join me." She offers and then adds, "You know.. after your guy there passes out… or you know.. you get bored with him."

A light sigh rolls free from behind Tom's lips. "I don't think I can find the time", he murmurs. "You enjoy yourself." And a smirk almost edges at his lips as he nearly adds 'While you can'. No, he is not that evil, even if he was just jumping onto someone's hand moments earlier. "You need to figure out what Evolved you've ticked off recently. Any illness nowadays is just a deviation from a known strain. If nothing can be found, then apparently an Evolved did this to you. Or, at least, it's evident to someone as paranoid as me. If you can figure out who did this to you, you can find them, and… I don't know, kiss their feet, worship them, and ask them nicely to revert the changes?"

There is silence there for a moment and Kaylee says a touch more softly then she probably means, "If it's the one I think it is… I can't beg her to reverse it." There is a beat, "She's dead." Her lower lip is caught between her teeth for a moment before she lets it go. "So I'm pretty well fucked." She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, "Whatever she did, is making my brain tell my body to shut down… the doctor said in a sense that my body is strangling itself slowly. It's only nausea now, but in time the pain will start." She doesn't sound so much scared, but…. unsure what to do.

"Trace back your steps."

And as if it's Diogenes who has to do the walking, he actually does start walking, towards and around the still-warm corpse on the cold concrete ground of the miniature, abandoned shelter. "The state of being 'fucked' is often relative. Why is she dead? What did she do - or say - before she died? Superhuman memory would pay off really well, here, because it's important you remember every single word and even the tone with which it was spoken." He was so caught up in giving advice, that a single hand was being lifted and lowered intermittently in the air, index finger and thumb touching loosely.

"If she did not say or act suspiciously in any way and simply died before your eyes…" There's a long, drawn out pause, supposedly a dramatic one. However, it's just the sound of Diogenes coming to a dead end. "Well, I guess then you're fucked!", he chirps.

"She died from being shot many many times." By Adam.. but she doesn't mention that, Kaylee turn and leans back on the counter as she thinks about it. "I mean.. She said some stuff in my head and I know her ability was some sort of persuasion, but I don't know why my body killing itself has anything to do with that. When I do that, people's bodies don't shut down." She pushes away from the counter and moves to a cabneit to pull out a mug. She starts pooring herself some coffee as she thinks. "I mean… that would be pretty cool if it did though." Yes, she called what's happening to her cool, but only in the fact of the ability.

"I don't care how she died, and neither should you. Even if she were hit by a fuel truck that subsequently exploded right on top of her— I wouldn't care, and neither should you."

Snort.

"Persuasion?.. So, if her ability isn't just randomly causing people to wither and die, she must have spoken a verb in its imperative form. Are you trying to hide her words from me? Did she tell you to sleep with me? Come on, I assure you, a night with me is much better than death."

That gets a chuckle. "I dunno… There is some debate about that." Kaylee makes a half hearted jab at him, knowing full well it'll just roll right off. "No.. I just.. She said I shouldn't trust Adam." There is a pause as she takes a sip of coffee and sighs happily. There was more, but she's not about to air that dirty laundry. She shrugs even though he can't see it, "She said it telepathically really. You… don't think… I mean seriously? She's somehow making my brain tell my body to die?" She makes it sound like a ridiculous idea. "Unless the mental rant was disguising what she was doing."

"Yeah, I guess telling your brain to shut down unless you fulfil a certain condition really is a child's fantasy! What will they think of next, right? A man exploding in the middle of New York? Come on!"

It's an understatement to say that Diogenes was once again employing his usual amount of sarcasm. As he mocks Kaylee, he looks down at the body at his feet once more, then turns to leave. He still talks to Kaylee, however, although judging from the following words, it looks like the conversation is nearing its end.

"If the woman is ready to kill you just so that you don't trust someone - and it's a waste of her ability if that was her last action before she was shredded with lead - she might be onto something. Don't tell Adam or any of his gang. Don't tell anyone, understand? Don't even think this."

"I can't keep it from everyone…The meds will help me act normal enough… But if what you said is true. I need to talk to a friend of mine. He… might be able to help me get information on this woman." Kaylee sound thoughtful, her mind already working on the problem. Her and Brian broke into the Company.. If this would done by one of the founders…. "I think I need to know more about her before we assume anything." She smiles a bit, "Anyhow, I need to get come food since I'm not dead yet. Don't have too much fun torturing people. I'll start getting jealous I can't play too." She really isn't that sadistic… or is she. Who knows with her anymore.

Hold on a darn minute there, Mister.

The proverbial light bulb lights up above Tom's head.

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea. Anyway, since I'm, uh—" His voice darkens, and he pauses, as if reconsidering his words. Then, reluctantly, he carries on: "I'm done with the Sandman, so my focus shifted to Adam, because Isis feels suicidal and wants to continue working for him. My paranoia acted up. But it served me well… I dug up some scary stuff. I don't want to share them with you until I'm positive - like you said, let's not make hasty assumptions. But if what I found is right…"

Again, he pauses. "Stay off the meds. Don't ask me why, just do it. Do it for five days. If you don't get better or get worse in that time period, get on the meds again. There is also something else I need to look into. You'd be doing a huge favour for me."

"I… You realize what your asking me right?" Kaylee says blandly. "I was sick for a week.. I only went in when I started puking my guts out." Ash had to pull over five times on the way to the hospital, but that's a gem she keeps to herself. "I was poked and prodded and told all my organs and stuff are slowly dying… And you want me to not take my meds?" She eyes the counter, "I can't keep away from daddy dearest any longer, Dio. I've called off work or left early for a week. He's going to get suspicious." Nails tap on the counters and she sighs. "Already had one of his guys ask if I was pregnant.. and if he thinks that himself.. He'll start gutting any guy I've been with." She sounds fairly certain about this.

"Daddy dearest? If you knew the things he… Fine. Okay. Go about it your way. You're the telepath, no doubt you poked in his mind to know you can trust him, right?" This was the most difficult hook, considering that if she did look into his mind, then this attempt to get to Kaylee was worthless.

Still, risks had to be taken. He hangs up, slips the phone into the inside pocket of his jacket, and steps outside to breathe in two lungs worth of polluted city air. Now to go home and have a nap. Too much information and events to absorb, lately.